The biology of human survival [[electronic resource] ] : life and death in extreme environments / / Claude A. Piantadosi

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910451575703321
• Autore: Piantadosi Claude A
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: New York, : Oxford University Press, 2003
• ISBN: 1-280-53383-8; 9786610533831; 0-19-974807-1; 1-4237-8497-9
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (280 p.)
• Disciplina: 612
• Soggetti: Extreme environments; Adaptation (Biology); Human physiology; Electronic books.
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-254) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: ""Contents""; ""1. The Human Environment""; ""The nature of human physical boundaries""; ""The importance of preparation for extreme exposures""; ""Some basic concepts of survival analysis""; ""Characteristics of life-support systems""; ""2. Survival and Adaptation""; ""The science of human physiology""; ""Principles of physiological regulation and adaptation""; ""Defining physiological adaptation to the environment""; ""Acclimatization and acclimation""; ""3. Cross-Acclimation""; ""The complexity of adaptation to environment""; ""Positive and negative cross-acclimation""; ""Biochemical mediators of physiological adaptation""""Stress proteins and the stress response""; ""4. Food for Thought""; ""A brief overview of human starvation""; ""Starvation: an affliction of the very young and the very old""; ""Assessing the severity of starvation""; ""Why children die of starvation""; ""Other critical factors in human starvation""; ""Starvation and obesity: strange bedfellows""; ""The molecular basis of obesity and hunger""; ""5. Water and Salt""; ""The composition of body water""; ""Why do human food and water requirements differ?""; ""The bodyâ€?s minimum daily water requirements""""The mechanism of dehydration and the bodyâ€?s responses""; ""Dehydration and heat tolerance""; ""Survival time without drinking water""; ""6. Water That Makes Men Mad""; ""The composition of seawater""; ""Ingestion of seawater""; ""Survival at sea""; ""Lessons from the USS Indianapolis""; ""A practical approach to salt and water loss at sea""; ""7. Tolerance to Heat""; ""Mammalian homeothermy""; ""Humans as tropical primates""; ""Body heat balance""; ""Heat acclimatization""; ""Heat acclimatization and physical fitness""; ""The limitations of human tolerance to heat""""Heat illnesses""; ""Death by heatstroke""; ""8. Endless Oceans of Sand""; ""The camel and the Berber""; ""Desert lessons from Pablo and the Haj""; ""Thermal stress and behavior""; ""Importance and regulation of heat-escape activities""; ""9. Hypothermia""; ""The effects of extreme cold on the extremities""; ""Settings for systemic hypothermia""; ""The physiology of hypothermia""; ""Unexpected effects of cold and hypothermia""; ""The subtle effect of winter on human mortality""; ""10. Life and Death on the Crystal Desert""; ""Life in Antarctica""; ""The race for the South Pole""""Failure to adapt to Antarctic conditions""; ""Engineering out the need to tolerate cold""; ""Human acclimation to cold""; ""Estivation""; ""Hibernation""; ""Hibernation, energy conservation, and suspended animation""; ""11. Survival in Cold Water""; ""The sinking of the Titanic""; ""Water temperature and human survival""; ""Prediction of survival time in cold water""; ""Survival behavior in cold water""; ""Hypothermia in deep sea diving""; ""Respiratory heat losses and slow cooling""; ""12. Air as Good as We Deserve""; ""Life in an oxidizing atmosphere""; ""Biological oxidations and oxygen toxicity""